TechnicolorCosplay, a Krystal Kigurumi cosplayer, has recently started work on creating a Krystal Staff. One of the interesting aspects about this one, however, is that it actually will glow. The shaft is made of a clear acrylic tube and gold vinyl wrap, cut to resemble the actual staff markings from the game (using my Staff Texture image as reference). A blue LED will shine down the tube into a white diffuser material to create the blue glowing effect. In upcoming steps, the shaft head and end will be built, though I don't have info on how those will be built. Looking forward to more progress.

On that note, TechnicolorCosplay now has a Twitter Account. You can follow the cosplay and Staff updates there.

After the Fox, Falco, Slippy, Krystal Mario 64 Mod two months ago, this new mod has appeared. This one features their designs from Super Smash Bros Melee. They are much faster, have better movement, and can even do the reflector shine move to attack enemies. They've got sound effects and everything. Fantastic mod!

Thanks to Nightcast for finding this.

It took a while, but Nintendo has responded to the mailed copy of VixenVotaries' Krystal artbook. If you were unaware, the artbook project was an effort started in April to gather various Krystal artists together to create new Krystal artwork, which would then be compiled into a book and sent to Nintendo with a note about how special Krystal is to her fans. They wanted to show their support for Krystal being made playable in Super Smash Bros by creating a physical, tangible work of love. Later, after the book was sent to Nintendo, the project was released to the public so all Krystal fans could print their own copy.

The letter that VixenVotaries received from Nintendo expresses delight at the devotion we Krystal fans have for our beloved blue vixen. They acknowledged both the individual effort and the passion of the whole Krystal fan community. Art projects and other fan works like this that Nintendo receives are shared around the office to be enjoyed by the employees, and the book may even show up at Nintendo events in the future. As for the request to make Krystal playable, Nintendo's representative, Adam Kuta promised to pass the sentiment along. No confirmation, but we weren't really expecting one.

All in all, a good effort by everyone and a happy ending for this project. Well, ending for now. We'll see what surprising the future holds.

My fellow Krystal fans. I apologize for the distinct lack of updates this week. It wasn't a planned absence, but travel and health issues have prevented me from posting. I have things to post, but no time to do it. Please understand.

I hope to get back to it next week, but if I don't, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Give your family and friends a hug and appreciate them and everything else you've been blessed with.

In my Monday post about Krystal mod progress for Star Fox Adventures, I completely forgot to show off this amazing video. Two things to note here. First, we're seeing Krystal's model being applied almost perfectly to Fox's character data. Most of the animations work and the Staff can be used at least partially, yet there's no backpack as some other code generates. Interesting. The other thing is that in this video, Strychnine decided to replace the Tricky model with the CloudRunner from the beginning of the game. The result is very weird animation and silliness. But otherwise, it works normally.

Lots of progress this week on Krystal Adventures modding. Hope to see more soon.

In a nondescript corner of Champaign, Illinois, a remarkable "business" sits, undiscovered, hiding one of the galaxy's greatest secrets. This humble-looking grocery and liquor store is secretly the front organization for the intergalactic mercenary group of the same name. You know what they say: if you want to hide something, hide it in plain sight.

In all seriousness though, looks like some folks were inspired by a certain distinctive logo from our favorite game series. Cool to see, though there's some question about whether they could get away with a logo so similar to Nintendo's. The store is located at 1005 Bloomington Rd. Champaign, Illinois 61821. They even have dedicated Facebook business page!

Hey, if you guys are actually close by, go snap a selfie in front of the store and send it in! I'll post them! Be sure to bring a Fox Amiibo or plushie along for the photo shoot.

Thanks to Draxis for bringing this to our attention. Sorry for the late posts from yesterday. Busy!

This is a first. SchattenKitsune666 modified the Warfaremachine rig both to work in MMD and to have modifications to make it look like the Dinosaur Planet version of Krystal, a more cat-like model with no tattoos and a different outfit. This MMD dance video is the full song, featuring lipsyncing and dynamic camera movements to go with the dancing. The song is [A]ddiction by GigaReol×EVO+.

There's an update on Nicki Tens' Krystal cosplay in progress. The mask has been printed and sanded. The backplate hinge for her to attach and detach the mask is almost done (some warping). Nicki next plans to airbrush the mask to get the right colors and texture. She's concerned about the complexity of it, and so plans to operate on a test print from another model before trying to paint the Krystal mask.

There have been some further developments on the task of getting Krystal playable in Star Fox Adventures and other research into the game since the last post about the progress.

First and foremost, two new researchers have appeared and are working on the same problem along with Nightcast. They're sharing information and code as they work out how things work. Those two people are RenaKunisaki and Strychnine. RenaKunisaki is working pretty closely with Nightcast in the Krystal Archive Discord, while all three of them are commenting on Strychnine's research thread over at RustedLogic.

My understanding of the progress is limited, but here's what I can determine. They have successfully figured out how to switch Fox's model with Krystal's, even in areas where Krystal isn't part of the normal game data. This can be accomplished in a hacky way by forcing the game to load a new area with Krystal not being unloaded, but in this case, they're doing something more clever. Using Gecko codes, every time a new map's data is loaded by the game, Krystal's model is being loaded in as well at the end, so it's always available. This code is doing the same for the textures.

Without using this loader, individual models and textures can be manually loaded too. That's the approach Strychnine appears to be following currently. This appears to have the added benefit of allowing Krystal to have the Staff. Not sure if the Staff is actually usable yet.

Next up, they are starting to look at loading/modifying the animations. Generally, Krystal's model can use Fox's animation bones since they are so similar, but there may be ways of using more appropriate Krystal-specific animations and otherwise making adjustments that are needed to avoid quirky behavior. After that, they want to find ways to update the voice acting to match Krystal's voice and then on to more exotic projects. One goal is to mod the game to allow two players, with Fox and Krystal being playable at the same time.

RenaKunisaki has posted some open source tools and code related to this project. Some of it can already decompress data from the game disc. Other stuff available is a patch that helps do the Krystal model loading.

Some other fun things were tried, like replacing Tricky with the CloudRunner that Krystal rides at the start of the game. It yielded interesting results.

In related news, Nightcast yesterday figured out how to activate a separate executable on the Kiosk disc version of Star Fox Adventures. It is believed to be Dinosaur Planet N64, or what's left of it. The code actually runs briefly, but alas, it doesn't get far right now. The executable tries to load some files, some of which don't exist. How much can be gleaned from this code, and what it can do, will depend on how well (or if) replacement data can be inserted for these files. If they can figure it out though, it could be that part of the original N64 game could be playable. That's entirely speculation, however. Don't get your hopes up just yet.

We'll keep following these developments as they happen. I suspect within a few weeks, we'll have something that the average gamer (with a completely legitimate, purchased copy of the game) can use to modify their game to play as Krystal's model, at least in some areas. Can't wait to see what's next!

Apologies if any of this is inaccurate. I'm seeing all this as an outsider looking in and only a partial understanding. Feel free to make corrections in the comments.

Hey guys. Sorry about missing posts from last Wednesday through Friday. I meant to do several posts, but I just ran out of time what with Halloween preparations and spooking children at my door before giving them candy. Crying children count: 2, hopefully more next year. :P

On top of that, I immediately had to go on a business trip to the burning, deserted state, California.

So here I am, in California, and somewhat busy with work stuff. I went ahead and posted three stories tonight to make up the missing ones, but I can't promise any more updates until I get back. Consider it a break. I will try to post if there is big news, of course, but regular posting should resume on Monday, November 11th.